The Crash Course: The Unsustainable Future of Our Economy, Energy, and Environment

Reviewer 'K.C.' maintains that this quite popular book falls a little short in addressing our economic problems. I go a step further; my remarks will be long, but only as long as required to address the systemic lacunae in Martenson's treatise.One need not dismiss the real challenge of 'Peak Oil' (even granting its premises) to refute Martenson's thesis that no replacement energy solution can be found. About five generations ago, most industrial/transportation energy came from coal; yet, far prior to exhausting that resource, we graduated to petrochemical distillates, nuclear, solar, wind, hydrodynamic, geothermal, tidal, etc. When mankind is in real (not manufactured) jeopardy of running out of energy, a new source -- or sources -- will likely be found/refined.I agree more with the author's environmental harangue than the other aspects of the book. I think some geologists and geophysicists would fault his analysis of the energy crash ahead. The weakest part of the work is Martenson's refusal to call *crime* by its name, therefore subjecting the reader to pointless economic gobbledygook.Economics Blather Without Moral JudgmentThe author delves into heady economic subjects: 'hedonics', GDP, inflation, low savings rates. But economics is 95% ethics and 5% math; so the author's refusal to acknowledge the elephant in the room -- multi-trillion-dollar financial crimes being committed by Congress for 150 years -- makes the book worthless on this score.In Chapter 7, Martenson rules summarily: "Once upon a time in U.S. history, a dollar was backed by a known weight of silver or gold of intrinsic value and came directly from the U.S. Treasury. Of course, those days are long gone." [I have the Kindle version, thus no page number.]Did I miss the coup, where Chris Martenson became emperor of America? If so, I yet maintain that We The People and States of America are sovereign in all matters not *specifically enumerated* in the U.S. Constitution as federal powers. Whatever legislatures and federal courts -- or Chris Martenson -- may say about this arrangement, it remains our *Supreme Law of the Land*.In other words, the law is not "long gone". This moral judgment is not beyond the ability of the average 7th grader in possession of the law and facts: Article I, Section 8, Clause 5 (and Article I, Section 10, Clause 2) of the U.S. Constitution stipulate that *nothing but gold and silver COIN* are lawful U.S. money.This is easily 7th grade comprehension stuff.*Pace* Chris Martenson, this is STILL the highest law in America, until the Congress and/or the States pass and ratify a constitutional amendment per Article V. No other action -- no 'legal tender act' or 'legal tender ruling' by the U.S. Supreme Court -- can abolish or alter our Supreme Law. Notwithstanding 150 years of force and fraud by a criminogenic D.C. cartel via its illegitimate 'legal tender' and 'Federal Reserve' acts, the Constitution STANDS.Martenson's blithe statement that "those days are long gone" is classic *petitio principii*; that's Latin meaning "begging the question", the logical fallacy wherein a debater uses his desired conclusion as one of his premises. "If criminals have been violating the law for over a century, we'll just assume the law simply doesn't exist while we discuss our 'problems' and 'predicaments' and perhaps arrive at a solution."I don't know the author, and am sure that he's an upstanding citizen. But a book like this, if it becomes popular enough, has precisely the opposite effect of the stated intention of the author. Right and wrong; truth and falsehood are important.In times like ours, very public and exemplary punishment is needed for public crimes. Judgment is critically important! Merely selling books based on 'shock value' is of no help to anyone (except the publishers and authors selling such books).Again in Chapter 7: after describing the staggering crimes of the Fed cartel for a century, the author states: "I'm not going to cast judgment on this system and say whether it's good or bad. It simply is what it is."This author's refusal to call high crime by its name can't be ignorance; surely he's read the Constitution. It can't be apathy; he obviously cares about this pillage, as evidenced by his indignant, end-times tone. So why refuse to 'cast judgment' on high crimes?It's predictable, then, that in the next chapter Martenson poses a false dilemma the two horns of which are 'problems' and 'predicaments'...ignoring CRIMES.Chartalism is Not The SolutionTo patch the gaping hole in the author's otherwise morally high-minded work, Amazon reviewer 'K.C.' recommends a video entitled 'The Money Masters', produced by two chartalists, William Still and Pat Carmack. This school of thought was formerly labeled CARTELists -- a more accurate label for the Pig-in-a-Poke scheme. Another chartalist is Stephen Zarlenga, dba 'American Monetary Institute', author of a big yellow tome entitled 'The Lost Science of Money'.Chartalism holds that since worthless paper money is used worldwide anyway, why don't we allow Congress to print fiat scrip directly instead of giving the exclusive concession to a cartel using the 'Federal Reserve' brand, and then just let Congress "spend it into circulation" and get it back in taxes? Carmack, Still, and Zarlenga weave a wonderful picture of chickens in every pot, no child left behind, everyone insured, and infrastructure out the wazoo.What's not to like? Just let Congress *openly* violate the highest law in America instead of granting the counterfeiting concession to the Fed crime cartel and making us pay interest on it. Allow Congress to print all the fake paper 'money' we need for every conceivable government give-away and 'infrastructure' (pork) project. Don't we need new infrastructure? All those services?No, we don't. Moreover, it's ILLEGAL for federal government to build such infrastructure and tax the citizenry for it. In fact, 75% of present federal expenditures fund ILLEGAL activities -- powers nowhere granted to the federal government by the U.S. Constitution. If people want a service to be added to federal powers, they must pass a constitutional amendment adding that power to the 17 enumerated in Article I Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution. That's the law.Dr. Martenson does correctly point out that counterfeiting worthless scrip and defrauding us about the situation won't hold off the laws of economics forever. History is full of examples. While 'The Money Masters' video and other chartalists point out the criminal nature of the exclusive counterfeiting concession operating under the fraudulent 'Federal Reserve' brand -- their 'solution' would be equally illegal. Defying ethics (sound economics) will fix nothing; it will only make things worse.Better Reading on This (Economic) SubjectFor a better and more comprehensive treatment of classic (ethical) monetary policy, credit, and banking in the tradition of the Salamanca School, read Professor Jesus Huerta deSoto's definitive  Money, Bank Credit, and Economic Cycles .[The case can be made that 100% redeemable gold and/or silver notes and 100% specie reserve bank loans and other derivatives would meet the spirit of the law. But there's no defense for continuing to allow Congress to carry on its 100-year Fed cartel counterfeiting concession and control of American 'credit'...fiat debt and its illimitable derivatives.]In a monograph entitled 'Exposing the Fool's Gold Standard' at my blog, ThisBloodlessLibertyTheBook dot blogspot dot com, I explain the historical origin of Congress' financial crimes. Since 1862 (not 1913) our federal servant's well-settled lawlessness has ruled our lives. I cite an 1884 pamphlet by historian and statesman George Bancroft Plea for the Constitution of the United States .I also cite vital works by Edwin Vieira and the late Murray Rothbard, and I criticize several books pretending to tout a 'gold standard' while omitting the legal foundation of that standard in American context. I offer a peaceful, rational solution to restore honest money, credit, and banking.My book  This Bloodless Liberty  explains the relationship between ethics and economics, wars and depressions and the mercantilists who own our government from behind the scenes.Popular Sovereignty: A Right and a DutyPopular Sovereignty is most easily explained as the application and enforcement of the U.S. Constitution by its apex sovereigns: We The People. Electoral politics cannot take the place of our unending duty to oversee our governments, including law enforcement against perpetrators of crimes -- even if those perpetrators are the highest elected officials in America. Precisely because of the elevation of their offices, they stand condemned all the more, when they violate the very Law they swear to defend!All three of the doomsday theses of this book can be, and are being, engaged by people more qualified than I am. I'm not going to cast judgment on Chris Martenson's analyses of those two areas, to say whether they are right or wrong. They are what they are.But I do take issue with his unwillingness to call Congress' financial crimes, what they are. Portending doom while refusing to "judge good or bad" as criminals pillage our economy and public ethics is simply irresponsible.We've failed to understand what's been happening to us; Martenson's book offers some help there.We've also failed to perform our citizens' duty to acknowledge and arrest criminals who, with total impunity and breathtaking arrogance, have violated our trust, our payroll accounts, their oaths of office, and our Supreme Law.Ours is no time for economic theses devoid of judgment; the hour has come for LAW ENFORCEMENT.David M. Zuniga, P.E.Founder, AmericaAgain! Trust

There are a limited number of good books that cover this very important topic - the relationship between population size, resource scarcity, and the competition that ensues from this struggle. And when this "struggle for existence" is tied together with major advances in medicine and relative world peace; the effect has been low fertility rates in democratic countries, people living much longer lives, and an unprecedented world wide population surge. Without what had been the traditional population checks in place (war, disease, and famine) the consequences will be devastating. The first person to have achieved any understanding of, and notoriety for articulating, this reality was Rev. Thomas Malthus with his,  An Essay on the Principle of Population (Oxford World's Classics) . And that was first published in 1798! The complete and total lack of those in political power to develop mechanisms to deal with this problem is the single greatest tragedy to befall the civilized world. Now, I simply said that to say this: Chris Martenson's book, The Crash Course, is the best book pertaining to this dilemma I have ever (yes, ever) read - and the most important book published since Garrett Hardin's,  Living within Limits: Ecology, Economics, and Population Taboos , or Jared Diamond's,  Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed: Revised Edition . I believe this for two primary reasons. First, everything I read in this book is factually accurate, sincerely delivered, and vitally important. Secondly, and what is honestly more important, the presentation is magnificent. Perhaps it is from Dr. Martenson's experience with developing the material, and making presentations over the years, but as Randy Olsen pointed out in,  Don't Be Such a Scientist: Talking Substance in an Age of Style , presentation is (practically) everything. Here are some great quotes (from just the first twenty pages!):- "In truth, our predicament goes far deeper than even these recent, disquieting economic events might suggest. It's time to face the facts: A dangerous convergence of unsustainable trends in the economy, energy, and the environment will make the "twenty-teens" one of the most challenging decades ever. The Crash Course explains this predicament and provides sufficient context to support the idea that it is well past time to begin preparing for a very different future."- "The big story is this: The world has physical limits that we are already encountering, but our economy operates as if no physical limits exist. Our economy requires growth. I don't mean that growth is "required" as if it's written in a legal document somewhere, but it is "required" in the sense that our economy only functions well when it's growing. With growth, jobs are created and debts can be serviced. Without growth, jobs, opportunities, and the ability to repay past debts simply and mysteriously disappear, causing pain and confusion...It is only when we assemble the challenges we find in the economy, energy, and the environment - which I call "the three E's" - into one spot that we can fully appreciate the true dimensions of our predicament. The next 20 years are going to be shaped by fundamental resource scarcity in ways that we have never experienced in history. The developed world is entering this race economically handicapped, with no one to blame but itself."- "The mission of this book is larger than helping people build more resilience into their lives and portfolios. At our current pace, we are on track to leave behind more than a few predicaments for our children, as part of a substantially degraded world with fewer opportunities than we ourselves were granted. If we make the right choices from this point forward, we have the opportunity to leave a very different legacy. This is what The Crash Course is about - helping us to individually and collectively understand that our choices matter significantly and that the time to make the right choices is running dangerously short."- "We cannot beat around the bush on this "third-rail" topic any longer: We need to stabilize world population at a level that can be sustained. If we don't, then nature will do it for us, and not pleasantly, either. This means stabilizing world population in perpetuity, not only for a little while longer. We may not know what this stable level is just yet, and more study is certainly needed, especially in light of declining energy resources. But we should do everything we can to avoid badly overshooting the number of humans that can be sustainably supported on our planet while carelessly avoiding an examination of the role of petroleum in supporting those populations." (actually, this quote came from page 253)- "To me, a world worth inheriting is one where the inhabitants are living within their economic and natural budgets. It is a stable world where people and businesses can plan for the future because they can trust what will be there when they arrive. It is a world in which the brittle architecture of our just-in-time food systems and businesses is replaced by robust, sustainable, locally focused operations. In this world worth inheriting, communities take on more responsibility for their destinies, and stronger and more fulfilling relationships develop among neighbors."In sum, this book is a must-read for anyone who cares one iota about their own future. Everything everyone needs to know is in this one book. I really could go on-and-on extolling the benefits and advantages of this book - compared to others - but I won't. Some people just won't be convinced...and that's really their problem. I know that may sound harsh, but the fact is: it's time to get serious. Some further evidence can be found in: Nafeez Ahmed's,  A User's Guide to the Crisis of Civilisation: And How to Save it , Ellen Brown's,  Web of Debt , or John Greer's,  The Long Descent: A User's Guide to the End of the Industrial Age .

This is an excellent book. For a clear explanation of the utter impossibility of maintaining business-as-usual exponential growth/consumption curves on a finite planet, the reader need look no further.Although the author has been accused elsewhere of 'stating the obvious', the sad reality is that had the obvious been heeded, there would be no need for a book like this. Instead, the fairy story of endless/perpetual growth in consumption - as measured by gross economic activity - has been somehow equated, in the minds of politicians and economists alike, as something essential rather than a dangerous addiction. And now it's coming to an end, as limits imposed by finite resources are reached.Martinson uses many methods to describe the exponential curve, how the same percentage rate of increase, in consumption, in debt, in anything leads to an ever-increasing rate of actual real-world increase but his best analogy is the filling of the world's largest stadium with water, while the innocent reader is imagined to be chained to a railing high up in the structure.He describes the doubling process, whereby a given rate of increase (x) per unit of time results in a doubling of the total amount (of whatever is being increased) in a period approximately equivalent to 70 units of time divided by x. This is just maths 101. It can be quickly verified on a cheap calculator. Or an expensive one. Whatever.Hence a 5 percent annual increase - the sort of economic target deemed desirable in business-as-usual circles - leads to a doubling in 14 years (70 divided by 5). But even at lower rates, the doubling still occurs, it just takes a bit longer.In the case of the stadium, Martenson starts off with a single drop of water, and a doubling period of one minute. So one drop becomes two, becomes four, eight, sixteen, thirty two, sixty four. Perhaps this is stating the obvious, but it seems that outside in the world, few people actually get it.After only 45 minutes, the stadium is three percent full of water. That's a lot of water, but it's only starting to get interesting. In the next minute that three percent becomes six percent, and so it goes on. At 49 minutes we're up to 48 percent full. In one more minute, the helpless reader will drown. Even if the stadium were twice as big again, it would only provide a breathing space of one more minute.Martenson describes these exponential process, which are hard-wired in almost all current human activities, in great detail. Essentially, we're less than one minute away from disaster. The world has no more doubling capacity. The global economy is no more than an immense ponzi scheme, predicated on selling the same con to the next generation of suckers. But now, we've run out of road. We're the ones left holding the bag.I do have a couple of criticisms, which is why I gave only four stars.In the section at the end, Martenson talks about strategies for dealing with the end of growth. For end of growth, read 'collapse'. He discusses relocating to somewhere that might have a future, developing community, learning food-growing skills. All good stuff. But some of his investment ideas, I believe, will prove bad advice.Investing in gold and silver, for example, makes no sense at all for the average person. For such investments to be viable, easy access is required, so that the gold or silver can be quickly exchanged for useful goods like food should the need arise. If you store bullion in your own home, that represents a big risk, and in any case, it's not actually possible to buy small quantities of precious metals, at least not legally, in many countries.The second option is to store it in the local equivalent of Fort Knox, except wait a minute, there is no local equivalent. So scrub that idea. In any case, in times of real hardship, when people don't have enough to eat, even the value of precious metals will fall.Likewise, investing is anything that requires digital communications is a fundamentally bad idea. Why? Simply because the many resource constraints outlined by Martenson in the book will almost certainly impact on global communications systems. They will go down. If anything, they will be like the canary in the mine shaft, they'll go down first. Digital investments will be gone, or just inaccessible.The final investment area to be wary of is renewable energy. Very wary in fact. Although it might seem prudent to invest in, for example, wind energy or solar PV energy, the unfortunate reality is these sectors now represent unstable ponzi schemes very similar in composition to the recent mad max creations of the financial and housing sectors.Investors are lured with promises of massive profit. The profit is contingent on the sale of energy. The sale of energy requires that energy demand grows. This requires that the economy grows, which in turn requires that the level of debt grows. And as renewable energy, when provided on an intermittent and unpredictable basis (as is ALWAYS the case with solar PV and wind energy) requires a back up form of energy that is available upon demand, we have this ludicrous situation where beyond a definite point, more renewable energy requires more fossil fuel energy. At that point the whole house of cards collapses. Good night and goodbye.So the wise advice to investors is DO NOT invest in renewable energy unless it has firstly, no dependency on cheap, easily available fossil fuels (as these won't be around much longer), secondly it can be kept going when no imported materials or goods (like spare parts) are available, and thirdly, you or your community actually have a use for it (as opposed to it being a cute status symbol).But none of that should detract from the book. I just think the world has gone much further over the edge since Martenson began writing, which was around 2004.

Chris Martenson has a bit of an academic approach/analysis style in writing which means you have to concentrate a bit when reading. The info and analysis is very well done of the present status of the economy and the future scenarios and above all what we can do to be ready and profit.He talks about demographics and how the whole economy relays on oil to survive. Chris doesn't see any new technology coming on the market in the near future that can change the game. I don't agree with this part of his analysis because the rate of change compared to 15-20 years is accelerating. If stuff like Zero point energy turns out to be real we could be living in a very different world in the next 10-15 years.I liked the personal bit where Chris talks about relocating his family to a rural area and why and what criteria they used to choose the location.This book was suggested to me by Robert Kiyosaki and his Roundtable and overall I'd say it gives you a good read into the economy.

Full of interesting and valuable information about the state of our planet and it's resources. He uses real figures and graphs to back up what he describes. It's very well writtten, and should be compulsory guided reading for all older teenagers. In fact everyone should read it, as the knowledge within is invaluable for all our futures.

Though written a few years ago 2011, most of the subject matter is still topical and very relevant

Really good level headed summary of why our modern global economy cannot work and MUST be changed urgently. There is a set of videos that cover the same material too you can watch over at peakprosperity.com, but the book goes into all the detail and cites many sources for further research.